Illuminating Paths to Grow

Project Polaris

Welcome to Project Polaris, an initiative designed to enhance the professional journey of Vanderbilt University's dedicated staff members.

At Vanderbilt, our mission is to bring out the best in humanity, and our motto is Dare to Grow. In the Division of People, Culture and Belonging, we are passionate about applying this mission and motto to our work, workforce and workplace by focusing on the growth and development of our staff, who are vital to supporting our university community. 

Project Polaris is our job architecture initiative, establishing a blueprint for fairness, equity and transparency by clearly defining roles, career growth paths, and the skills needed for success at Vanderbilt. It empowers staff to thrive and reach their full potential, positioning Vanderbilt as an incubator and destination for top talent. It helps us navigate the evolving landscape of higher education and the global marketplace,  benefiting the entire Vanderbilt ecosystem.  

Project Polaris serves as the foundation for People, Culture and Belonging's strategic vision, and provides the structured framework necessary for implementing and optimizing future key programs. The clear career pathways and critical skills defined by Project Polaris will inform talent acquisition strategies and guide learning and development programs. Moreover, the enhanced understanding of roles and responsibilities will facilitate more effective performance management and enable data-driven workforce planning. By establishing this robust job architecture, Project Polaris creates the essential groundwork for a cohesive and comprehensive approach to staff development and organizational growth. 

Learn more in the
Education Corner

Charting Our Course: Project Polaris Objectives

Project Polaris isn't just about charting stars - it's about creating new constellations of opportunity. Our mission revolves around two primary objectives:

  • Establishing Transparent Growth Pathways: We're developing a job architecture that aligns staff positions with job families, sub-families, career streams, levels, and titles. This will bring clarity and consistency to how our jobs are organized, allowing you to see your place in the greater Vanderbilt universe more clearly than ever before.
  • Mapping the Skills of Tomorrow: We're creating a skills framework that integrates with our job architecture. This will illuminate the skills that lead to success in each job, helping you plot your course to professional growth and excellence.

By implementing this innovative job architecture, we are creating the foundation for our strategic goals that aim to transform the staff experience at Vanderbilt.

What's in it for me?

  • Leaders

    A modern, flexible skills-based job architecture provides a framework to support the work you and your team do today with scalability to easily accommodate future job needs – even for jobs that don’t exist today!  

    By connecting specific skills to our jobs, leaders can have more insightful conversations with current and prospective staff about the drivers of success and position you as a leader to assess and manage your team(s) more effectively.  

    Visibility into the different roles on our campus and the critical skills necessary for success will provide new ways to identify and connect job-ready talent within our own organization to your team.  

    Confidence in knowing that our compensation strategy and practices are sound and that our simple, yet effective tools can be utilized to ensure that your staff are paid competitively to the external market and in alignment with similar positions across the University.  

    Less time is needed on administrative tasks related to career and compensation issues, and more time is spent on doing what you do best…conducting vital research and meeting the needs of our students and the university community. 

  • Staff

    Standardized job descriptions will clarify core duties and accountabilities, highlight critical skills, and establish consistent minimum qualifications allowing you to explore career opportunities across the University that align with your individual goals and interests. 

    With a focus on skills, individual learning opportunities can be customized to help you learn, grow and achieve your goals. 

    Ultimately, the job architecture will help you to plan a career growth path here at Vanderbilt. You will be able to determine where your role is today compared to others and see advancement opportunities. Leveraging the skills-based architecture you can work with your leader to upskill and prepare for your next growth opportunity. 

Our Voyage: Timeline and Milestones

We have finalized the development and alignment phase of the project, during which we met with over 100 key stakeholders across campus to map over 800 staff roles into a new structure organized by job families, sub-families, growth streams, and growth levels. We are now entering an exciting new phase of our journey with the soft launch of the skills-based job architecture underway. Throughout June, we are piloting the architecture with nine divisions, schools, and colleges. We are testing the implementation timeline and tools, gathering feedback, and refining our approach. This critical phase sets the stage for our full university-wide launch in July 2025, when all staff will be introduced to the architecture and its role in supporting career growth, development, and opportunity across the university.

project timeline